The Key Providers In Travel And Tourism Industry - Essay Example

THE KEY PROVIDERS IN TRAVEL AND TOURISM INDUSTRY According to a recent IATA bulletin, today’s travel & tourism and aviation industries are among the world’s largest, currently employing more than 200 million people and grossing more than U.S.$ 3.5 trillion annually. An airline or an airway is a system for scheduling air transport of passengers and freight; a business providing a system for scheduled air transport. Tourism, which is different from travel, is defined as ‘traveling for pleasure’. Tourism has developed into a worldwide phenomenon, touching the highest and deepest aspirations of all people, and is also an important element of socio-economic and political development of all countries. Tourism comprises the activities of persons traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited. In order for tourism to happen, there must be a displacement: an individual has to travel, using any type of means of transportation. But all travel is not tourism. Three criteria are used simultaneously in order to characterize a trip as belonging to tourism. The displacement must be such that (1) it involves a displacement outside the usual environment, (2) the travel must occur for any purpose different from being remunerated from within the place visited, and (3) only a maximal duration is mentioned, not a minimal; tourism displacement can be with or without an overnight stay. Links between Airlines and Transport Providers Internationally renowned vehicle rental agencies like Avis, Hertz, Thrifty, Dollar, National, Enterprise and Budget can be found at or near every major airport in the world. Passengers arriving on various airline flights arrange to rent vehicles from these agencies for the duration of their stay in the city or cities of that country. Such vehicle rental offices are staffed round the clock by well-trained staff and provide quality customer service. Many important points are considered by passengers before they choose a suitable car rental agency such as: Does the agency have a good customer service record? Does it credit frequent flyer or frequent guest programs with points? Does it carry the type of cars that the passenger likes to drive such as a new, used Ford, G.M and luxury or specialty vehicle? Does it have agreements with hotel chains, airlines and credit card companies that could save the passenger money in these areas? Does it offer a Premium Club where a passenger can sign up all rental information – like rental preferences, decisions on insurance coverage and fuel replacement - in advance to shorten or eliminate the time spent at the counter? The airlines and transport providers are continuously linked and depend on each other – to the airline, the vehicle rental agencies are important as they provide reliable, crucially needed services to the passengers who travel on their aircraft; to the vehicle rental agencies, the airlines are important as they provide business to them in the form of passengers who hire their vehicles, and as such, without such business from the airlines, such vehicle rental agencies cannot survive. Links between Airlines and Providers of Accommodation and Catering All airlines have contracts of cooperation with one more hotels in cities where their aircrafts fly. A hotel, defined as a establishment that provides lodging, usually meals and other services for travelers and other paying guests, provides very economic room rates to the airline. The drawing up of these cooperation contracts is an extensive process involving airline officials visit to these hotels to evaluate comfort, cleanliness, quality, food and service so that they are satisfied that their staff and valued passengers will not be deprived in any way. Besides provision of meals, other considerations such as provision of laundry facilities, special deals for children and seniors, provision of pool, fitness and tennis facilities, availability of shuttle services are also taking into account. These “airport” hotels are nearly always 5-star. Passengers are provided free accommodation in these hotels in cases of transit stopovers or cancelled flights caused by bad weather, mechanical failure of aircraft, sudden mandatory security check of aircraft or closure of airport services due to airport employees strike and so on. These hotels also provide free accommodation to airlines staff (pilots, co-pilots, stewards, air-hostesses, aircraft security staff) of incoming flights of the airline, providing them much needed rest and refreshment until they are assigned out on the next aircraft. This link between airlines and airport hotels constitutes only a small percentage of the total business between them. The bulk of airlines link with hotels comes through travel agencies and tour operators – a triangular link between airline, travel/tour operator and hotel that enable passengers to have the most economic accommodation offers in hotels. A caterer is defined as one that is hired to provide food, beverages and services. An airline caterer is an establishment that either stands alone or is part of another food service establishment, which, by prior arrangement, prepares food and provides transportation for the food to the aircraft of the airline. Airlines are linked to specialist caterers – internationally recognized providers of culinary expertise for catering to its staff and passengers. LSG Sky Chiefs, without doubt the largest airline caterer in the world, along with Gate Gourmet, have about half the global airline catering market between them. These caterers, who are competing with – and in some cases, co-branding with – fast food and casual dining chains, consult on food design with the airlines and put their signature on items ranging from breakfast bagels to popular wrap sandwiches similar to what they sell on the ground. Airline caterers prepare the food in huge airport kitchens, where they have experience in making thousands of meals a day under strict health and security rules as food safety is a prominent pre-requisite (for example LSG Sky Chiefs has its own LSG Hygiene Institute, recognized as the world’s premier airline catering laboratory). The airlines depend on these caterers to provide the best food and service to their staff and passengers, while the airline caterers are fully dependent on airlines for their business, and indeed, their very survival. Links between Airlines and Tour Operators Thousands of available vacation travel packages can make travel planning frustrating and time-consuming to passengers. Airlines are not in a position to sort out the many travel options, therefore they link with tour operators to provide this service to their passengers. On their part, tour operators are fully dependent on airlines to provide passengers for their business. USTOA, in its December 9, 2002 press release defines a tour operator as a company whose main business is the planning, packaging, selling, marketing and promotion of multiple vacation elements, including air or surface transportation arrangements combined with land accommodations and related services, and reservations which are secured and coordinated by such entity and for which such entity produces literature promoting the tours/packages and which tours/packages are commissionable to retail agents. The tour operators assess the needs of airline passengers and help them make the best possible travel and tour arrangements to suit their schedule and budget. Whether the passenger is a travel connoisseur or just beginning his or her world explorations, whether traveling as an individual or as part of a group, tour operators try to fulfill their every travel and tour desire. Airlines and tour operators consult with each other and draw up attractive tourist packages for passengers visiting the cities to which the airlines fly. Arrangements are also made with cruise lines, hotels, resorts and specialty travel groups in these cities to promote attractive vacation travel packages to millions of travelers each year. Such tour packages include hotel/motel/ luxury lodge accommodation, self drive rental cars, travel passes, rail and bus travel, motor coach tours, scenic flights, cruises and tourist attractions, all conducted by experienced sight-seeing tour operators fluent in many international languages. Cruises are very important. If an ocean cruise is considered as too big, then river cruises are recommended. Every year people are discovering the value of an all-inclusive nature of a cruise vacation. Many of these people will return to cruising again and again because they enjoy the many luxuries provided in the package put together for them: this will benefit both the airline as well as the tour operator. Links between Airlines and Travel Agents A travel agency, also called a travel bureau, is a business that attends to the details of transportation, itinerary and accommodation for travelers. A business is considered to be a travel agency if it sells or arranges to sell the rights to travel in a vehicle it does not own, or, makes incidental arrangements such as organizing care hire or travelers’ checks if there is a travel component, or, sells or arranges to sell the rights of accommodation at a place which it does not own if there is a travel component, or even if it owns the means of transport. With all the different prices, deals, rules and regulations, air travel is considerably more complicated than most passengers feel it to be. One also has all the different luggage hassles and the fear of arriving with a ticket paid for months ago, only to find there is no room in the place for you. All these factors make people turn to travel agents rather than specific airline offices for their bookings because travel agents can offer various alternative airlines flights to destinations, many times even merging flights on two or more airlines in one single ticket. Every airline has one travel agent in the capital of the countries to which they fly, and these are called G.S.A (General Sales Agents). Airlines and G.S.A agencies have agreements regarding volume of sales, sales commission, and most importantly strict rules regarding ticket pricing to various destinations to which the airline operates. On its part, the G.S.A shares a part of the commission it receives from the airline with other subsidiary travel agents in its cities, enabling such subsidiaries to also sell the tickets of the airline. Thus, even though the airline itself has its own office in that city, passengers get the same fare whether from the airline office, the G.S.A office or any of its subsidiary travel agents. Apart from just selling the airline’s tickets, travel agents are in constant link with airlines to provide passengers with a wide variety of other services, such as obtaining tourist visas, travel insurance (as vital a part of your trip as a suitcase), certificates of vaccination, and currency exchange rates. The development of sales network, with the requisite input of modern travel agency operations and marketing of travel has become imperative with the phenomenal increase in international travel. Thus, airlines and travel agents are very closely linked in their joint quest to provide the best possible service to airline passengers. Links between Airline and Visitor Attractions A visitor attraction is defined as drawing or attracting persons to visit a place, attend an event, or travel to a location for such purposes as for recreation, enjoyment, education and information gathering or intellectual pursuits. A great visitor attraction is interesting, affordable, accessible and appealing to the wide demographic; places and activities that families can participate in, that seniors can easily access and visit, that active people or singles can experience, or venues that all can enjoy. Every airline office provides extensive information about visitor attractions in the country where it is based. To name a few: Taj Mahal in India, Pyramids in Egypt, Great Wall in China, Eiffel Tower in Paris, Disneyland in U.S.A. This information is in the form of well-designed and documented brochures as well as internet websites. This information can also be found in the offices of the airline G.S.A. Most of all, it is the tour operator who provides the bulk of business to visitor attractions, linking between the airline and visitor attraction spots to guide passengers taking vacation travel packages. Visitor attractions are benefited because they get free and extensive publicity from the airlines and its linked travel agents and tour operators that cause millions of passengers to visit them each year. Airlines are benefited because they sell tickets to passengers interested to go to these visitor attraction spots around the world. Links between Airlines and Tourism Development and Promotion Organizations Airlines and Tourism Development & Promotion Organizations are linked to develop a tourism that meets economic expectations and environmental requirements, that respects not only the social and physical structure of destinations, but also the local population, thus being more responsible to our common heritage. They are unanimous in identifying the priority to protect and reinforce the human dignity of both local communities and tourist. Airlines, along with tourism development & promotion organizations are guided primarily by the United Nations’ World Tourism Organization (W.T.O), through its subsidiaries World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), and UNESCO World Heritage Center. These U.N bodies meet periodically with airlines and tourism development & promotion organizations (including representatives from national Chambers of Commerce and other conventional bureaus), to discuss and develop long range plans to promote tourism within various countries. They discuss important factors like developing marketing strategies, funding, maintaining the infrastructure that supports the tourism industry and promoting tourism awareness among public, local and state officials whose actions affect the tourism industry. By common denomination, they have identified tourism as a promising growth sector in countries, and the main objective of the promotion of tourism as a growth sector is to accelerate the grown of national income, gainful employment, foreign exchange earnings and government tax revenues. Tourism is one of the few industries identified in the Rio Declaration and Agenda 21, adopted at the United Nations Conference on Environment Development, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, as having the potential to make a positive contribution to a healthier planet. Since then, the tourism sector’s potential as an engine for sustainable economic and social development has been recognized by several political entities. The Organization of American States (OAS) is another very important international organization that promotes tourism. Involved in the area of tourism since the establishment of the Inter-American Travel Congress in 1939, it has been recognized as playing a leading role in the Hemisphere regarding the elaboration of tourism policies and technical cooperation. Its role is heavily dependent on its constant interlink with airlines and leading travel and tour operators that provides it valuable up-to-date information. References Cited: * Airport car rentals Retrieved 11/24/2005 from URL: http://www.airportrentalcars.com * Charter for sustainable tourism Retrieved 11/24/2005 from URL: http://www.gdrc.org/uem/eco-tour/charter.html * Cheap family holidays and last minute deals: Thomas Cook Retrieved 11/24/2005 from URL: http://www.thomascook.com * How other vacation spots have coped over the years Retrieved 11/24/2005 from URL: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/custom/tourism/ orl-special-disneyother,0,3861504.htmlstory * U.S. Department of Labor (Bureau of Labor Statistics) Retrieved 11/24/2005 from URL: http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos124.htm * U.S.A TODAY com: Food flight: Airline caterers team with brand names Retrieved 11/24/2005 from URL: http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2004-03-30-caterers_x.htm * Vacation travel packages, exotic luxury cruises Retrieved 11/24/2005 from URL: http://www.globalvacationtravelpackages.com Read More